X-Message-Number: 908
Date: 17 Jun 92 01:01:28 EDT
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Re: cryonics: #904 - #907

Hi David:

I agree with you that the booklet needs revision. ON THE OTHER HAND,
that's likely to always be true. 

Some other points: it seems to me very hard to explain cryonics at all
without giving some "idiosyncratic" opinions and statements. The comments
about "aging", of course, explicitly or implicitly distinguish the present
symptoms of age (which involve degeneration) from the simple passage of
time. Since "aging" in the sense of the passage of time is very closely
linked in the popular mind with "aging" in the sense of degeneration, our
purpose can't even be discussed without distinguishing the two.

Furthermore, I believe your comments confuse two different uses of lang-
uage: both communication and exhortation. True, property comes from a 
generally understood social "contract" (not really: even animals have
territories, and the roots of property are almost certainly much deeper
than any social agreement). But then, how do people ordinarily argue when
they want such arrangements CHANGED? If we had never done anything but
accept the language and arrangements of society, we wouldn't have even
reached the farming stage, much less industrialization, computerization,
and so on.

Finally, as to the photographs of freezing damage, there is a "half-full
or half-empty" problem. Whatever is meant by "massive" damage, I don't
see it there. "Damage", certainly --- but the words "massive damage"
evoke in me that thought of "irreparability", which I very much do NOT
see.
			Best and long life
				Thomas

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